We woke up early, mostly due to crashing early last night. We went to Taste (as opposed to Savor) for breakfast. I splurged on sunny side up eggs (normally go for scrambled) and a cinnamon roll, while Mindy got a fancy breakfast sammich. We heard a nearby lady ordering a VERY specific meal involving the use of toast solely to soak up water from poached eggs--with “eating” toast on the side. Oh, and "real" Half-and-Half.
At this point, we split off for a couple hours, with Mindy hanging out on the balcony and me off to the "Thermal Spa". The spa folks tried to sell us on a week-long pass, but I don't see myself doing it enough times to make that financially responsible. So I just did the day pass.
The thermal spa includes the following:
A large warm pool with various jets--kind of like a big hot tub. One area, semi-sectioned off from the rest, had jets powerful enough that you had to fight to not be plastered against the wall.
A set of lounge chairs, overlooking the bow of the ship. Some of them were made of stone and were heated, apparently to satisfy your ancient lizard need to sun yourself on a rock.
A traditional sauna (lots of heat, little humidity)
Another version of a sauna with less heat and more humidity
A traditional steam room, which I could only stay in for 2 minutes
A snow room-- basically a very cold room with a snow making machine attached. Moving directly from the sauna to the snow room was quite invigorating. I couldn't stop myself from singing "Holly jolly Christmas" under my breath.
A salt bath--a room with heated salt that does some sort of health related thing. It's one of those "if you believe it works, it works" deal. On the ceiling was a set of jutting red crystals, assumedly made of salt.
"Krypton is about to explode, get the baby Kal-El on the rocket!!"
After that, back to the room to get ready to check out Portland, ME. We didn't pay for any excursions here, instead we just walked about. Found a nice place off the beaten path of cruisers where I got my traditional Lobstah Roll.
That’s a $35 sammich (market rate).
A very pretty salad.
Mindy found an online self-walking tour of the area. We found out that one of the founders of United Artists was born there. In the early days of cinema, you could go from being the local movie distributor to running a studio. We also ran into a guy who gave us some colorful information about the area--he's not a fan of change.
Portland’s Jewish roots.
Back to the relative safety of the ship, and another spa session. Then it's time for dinner. We went to the third "complimentary" restaurant, the Manhattan Room. Mindy had the steak with peppercorn sauce, while I tried the Boom-Boom Chicken. Both were very good. It's fascinating to watch the army of wait staff move about like a Swiss watch.
She loves them peppercorns.
A quick walk around the deck to wake us up, followed by watching the crew release the lines as we rode off. We hoped to see a cruiser running toward the gangplank as it was pulled in, but no luck.
A bit later, we ventured out to a bar where the FB group had invited people celebrating events (we just passed our 30th anniversary). Five minutes into the get together, a singer kicked off his act 5 feet away. Not conducive for conversation.
That's enough for one day--tomorrow, Bah Hahbah.
#escapetothegrwatwhitenorth